To consider the Budget Monitoring Report for Quarter 4 2024/2025 (to include Revenue Budget and Capital Budget monitoring together with financial and delivery details of the Capital Programme) and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Board reviewed the submitted Budget Monitoring Outturn Report for 2024/2025 which set out the final position in respect of the Council’s Capital and Revenue Budgets for 2024/2025.  The Report would be presented to the Cabinet meeting on 9 June 2025 and the Council meeting on 24 July 2025, which was recommended to approve the allocation of the surplus £0.351m Revenue Funding.  The Board also considered options for the allocation of the surplus funding, including the following outlined by the Cabinet Members at the meeting:

Members discussed the above topics and suggested that an additional item should be included to help support community centres, many of which were in a poor state of repair, and it would be useful for them to understand what needed to be done to help them apply for available grant funding for repairs.  It was noted that condition surveys had been carried out around 2022 and that they may need to be refreshed/reviewed to ensure that they were up to date as some community centres had received funding and had works done.  An example was also given that a recent Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Panel had allocated money to a community centre in Torquay to provide kitchen facilities.

The Board asked questions in relation to the following:

·                was there still expected to be high pressures in Adult Social Care and Children’s Services;

·                what was the reason for the overspend in the Dedicated Schools Grant;

·                what was the Children’s Section 17 £215k overspend reflective of;

·                there was an overspend of £214k for Children’s Disabilities how was the Council going to deal with the demands for the next quarter;

·                was there a trend in occupancy levels across the Councils investments and what was being done to manage this; and

·                what was the reason for the underspend on the Highways budget.

The following responses were provided to Members’ questions:

·                Adult Social Care and Children’s Services budgets continue to be volatile.  There was some protection for Adult Social Care through the Integrated Care Agreement, with additional support put in last year for homelessness and temporary accommodation with sustainability plans put in place which had helped to manage numbers in these areas and resulted in a drop in spend.  There had been additional funding put into Children’s Services for 2024/2025 but there had been a targeted reduction in spending for Home to School Transport which equated to a cash saving of circa £1m.  The overall underspends were less than 1% of the annual budget for both Adult and Community Services and Children’s Services which was a great outcome.

·                The Council was in the early stages of the safety valve for the Dedicated Schools Grant overspend and had taken the quick actions and was now implementing an improvement plan with support from the Government.  This linked to other work on recommissioning some specialist provision to ensure it meets the individual child’s needs and reduces additional external costs.

·                The Children’s Section 17 had been impacted due to the number of families classed as intentionally homeless resulting in ‘children in need’ and the new Children’s Reforms would result in such cases no longer needing to come to Children’s Services - instead working with the families and Housing Team to help find suitable accommodation which should reduce the spend next year.

·                Part of the mid-term financial planning would review placements for children with disabilities to understand the reasons for overspending and this work would be incorporated within the existing Director of Children’s Services Financial Sustainability Plan.

·                The commercial properties generate £13m income per annum with at net £4.1m allocated to the Council’s Revenue Budget.  The annual income was top sliced to account for any fluctuations in occupancy levels which was regularly reviewed.  Levels of occupancy have been good for the commercial properties but there had been a change in the market for office accommodation which was being closely monitored.  There were regular monitoring meetings looking across the performance of all investment properties and other income generating Council owned assets.  Part of the 2025/2026 budget proposals included a 5% reserve from the income generating assets within Torbay, similar to commercial properties, to help cover the cost of void properties.  The Council needs to look at the investments over the next five years to see if Officers need to take a different approach taking into account the market and what the Council wants to do with the various assets it owns.  It was known when the Council purchased Union Square that there would be voids due to the planned redevelopment of the site. 

·                The underspend in Highways was due to receiving more income than expected from road closures, the planned work had been carried out.

Members noted the approach to the Capital Programme with the Capital and Growth Board meeting each month and publishing decisions on Capital Spend between each quarter in public Records of Decisions and then reporting through the quarterly monitoring reports to provide greater transparency and showing movements in green.

The Board welcomed the underspend in Adult Social Care and Children’s Services, especially around the home to school transport and thanked the staff for their hard work in achieving this, whilst being assured that support was being provided to those who needed it.

Resolved (unanimously):

1.       that the Overview and Scrutiny Board notes the submitted Budget Monitoring 2024/2025 Quarter 4 Outturn Report;

2.       that an additional key line of enquiry be added for the SWISCo Annual Report and Business Plan item due to be considered at the Board meeting on 9 July 2025, to include what has been delivered as part of the Brighter Bay initiative; and

3.       that the Cabinet be recommended:

a.       to allocate an appropriate amount of funding from the year-end surplus to update the condition surveys for community centres to help them with grant funding applications; and

b.       to note that that the Overview and Scrutiny Board notes the suggested items put forward by the Cabinet for the year-end surplus and welcomes further discussions at the Cabinet and Council meetings.